dolari | That won't work because God isn't dumb.

These last two days have been my first real weekend in three weeks. The last few weeks, I've had a four day work week, followed by two half days, and one day off. So my weekends have been kinda compressed. Last week, after getting off work at 4PM, I decided "You know, you have a whole weekend to yourself, so why not take a quick run around your new stomping grounds?"

Wednesday, September 27th

I didn't have much time to look around, so I decided to grab my camera, and go up TX 21 to take some pictures of the Camino Real markers and to generally just scout out the area, see what was out here. I learned there's lots and lots of cotton out here. :) It was EVERYWHERE. Just random little fluffs of cotton all over the road.

I continued up TX 21 into the small town of Uhland, and found a very dead town with a very alive bar. There wasn't much else there - a few empty buildings, some old gas pumps (33 cents a gallon!), and a lot of signs for hotels sitting on lawns. I did find one "sign" very neat, though:

A relic from when the "Old Spanish Trail" road through town was The Highway through Uhland, the "Milk Bottle Motel." The nipple to the bottle is on the bottom left.

It was getting dark, so I turned around and drove south towards San Marcos, but didn't get very far because it just got too dark. I decided that tomorrow, my only full day off that week, I'd make a day of it....

Thursday, September 28th

I literally picked up where I left off, but this time, with a purpose. I grabbed my Hill Country book, and was going to go down the Camino Real route into New Braunsfels, then, while I was there, hit every point in the book.

Along the way, I mapped out several "non-paved" routes of the Camino. The road is mostly followed by highways and county roads, but there are spots where the road was straightened, and remnants of the old road still existed. And this time I was blessed with the new R. Dorothy - my hiptop Internet enabled phone. I was able to pull up satellite maps and look at them WHILE ON THE ROADS, and really narrowed down some of the off-road Camino areas whch are very easy to see on satellite, not so much on the ground.

Once in New Braunfels, I cracked open my book, getting a good look at Comal Springs (which will more'n likely be dried up in a few years due to San Antonio drinking the aquifer dry), Landa Park (where I had my most amazing bike ride ever, going from New Braunfels into Downtown San Antonio, a length of 30 some miles), and sites in and around town.

Irving would be so proud. Or protesting. Or something.
That little girl is in complete and total awe....

Something I thought was cute - I went to the Sophienburg Museum to take pictures of the museum (it had closed while I was there), and there were a group of barely-pre-teen girls playing in the gardens, except for one lone little girl. Had to be 11 or 12. Anyways, she was off on her own, hunched down talking to some flowers. She saw me, and kinda stood up and wandered back towards the building. When she thought I'd moved on (I moved back to get a better view of the building out of her sight), she walked back and began talking to the plants again. The other girls wanted nothing to do with her. I felt kinda bad, but then I realized, I was prolly looking at a future witch in training. :)

You can see her crouched down on the right.

Soon enough, though, darkness fell again, and I had to make it back to San Marcos, this time begging that my truck could get me home on just fumes. I'd totally screwed up my judgement mileage-wise, and thankfully, she got me home, like she always does....

I liked this trip so much, that I decided: Next weekend, I'm doing it again....

But it's late - and that's a long story. So what will you see tomorrow? Ramblings about the Camino Real, visiting more ghost towns, meeting new people in unlikely situations, the 80 mile burger trip, Iron Chef Oh My God, and NOT MUCH MORE! Tomorrow, same Jenn Time, same Jenn Station!